Chris Brown

Student ID: 11038484

145.120 Transmedia Narrative and Storytelling

Assignment 2

Tutor: Dr Pansy Duncan

16th October 2015

Chris Brown
154.120 Transmedia Narrative and Storytelling
Dr Pansy Duncan
16th October 2015

The Marvel Cinematic Universe transformed the understanding of how to

build a world within a shared cinematic universe. This essay will look at
how they went about building their world by looking at how the characters
were developed individually before being brought into a team, how each
of the properties tie into one another, and how Marvel has used different
mediums to differentiate the tone between properties.

The first character that Marvel Studios introduces to us in this world is

Tony Stark, who is Iron Man. Tony starts off with undesirable character
traits where he is self indulged and self serving. Throughout the first film
we see Tony come to see the consequences of his actions and from this
start to try and make amends for his past mistakes. This exposes a side to
the character that audiences can empathise with; it also lays the
foundations for the character development throughout future films. We
see this solo character development being utilised in the first Avengers
film when Steve Rogers, Captain America, questions whether Tony would
sacrifice himself if there was no other way out. Despite the film itself not
giving a lot of screen time to this internal conflict for Tony, the audience
can still understand how this conflicts with the character's personality
because of establishment of who Tony is in the previous Iron Man films. So
when Tony puts his life on the line at the end of the Avengers, it caps of
one of his character arcs of having to a face a threat that there is no
escape from, which was only able to work because of the development
from previous films. Another example of this type of development is with
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154.120 Transmedia Narrative and Storytelling
Dr Pansy Duncan
16th October 2015

the character Bruce Banner who is the Hulk. In 'The Incredible Hulk' we
see Banner struggling to maintain a stable life, we also get to see witness
the destruction caused when he turns into the Hulk. So when we get to
the Avengers films, the audience can understand the motivations behind
Banner's action if even it was not shown in the films. For example in the
first Avengers we can understand his reluctance to be involved in such a
high stress situation in fear of hurting innocent people because of what we
saw in 'The Incredible Hulk'. The audience can also see why Banner would
get angry about S.H.E.I.L.D trying to build weapons from something that
they do not understand after Banner witnessed the consequences of the
US military trying to weaponise Banner's blood and the destruction that
resulted from it. We also how Banner not being to maintain a stable life in
'The Incredible Hulk' ties back in to Banner's decision to leave on his own
at the end of 'Avengers; Age of Ultron' instead of leaving with Black
Widow. This type of development marks a change in cinematic world
building, whereas we once would have seen characters within a team film
each get screen time within that one film to develop their characters, we
now have the solo films to develop the individual character arcs leaving
the team films to focus on the interactions between the characters. It is
also worth noting that this type of development does not just take place
foe the heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we see this with the
character Loki. In the first Thor film we see the conflict between the
brothers Thor and Loki and what lead Loki down a path of darkness. So

Chris Brown
154.120 Transmedia Narrative and Storytelling
Dr Pansy Duncan
16th October 2015

when we reach the first Avengers film the audience already has an
understanding of what fuels and drives Loki's actions to attack the earth.

Another way in which we see this character development affecting future

films is the way in which the films have been setting up the conflict
between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark in the upcoming film, 'Captain
America: Civil War'. In the Captain America film 'Winter Soldier' we start to
see the questions being raised about what is freedom and what does it
cost to have. In 'Winter Soldier' we see Rogers come into conflict with
S.H.I.E.L.D, where S.H.I.E.L.D wants to eliminate threats before they occur,
Rogers, with his morality that was established in the first Captain America
film, believes that the crime should come before the punishment. Like the
audience, Rogers has seen the negative effects of government power in
the events of "Winter Soldier'. Whereas compared to Tony, where in all
three of the Iron Man films we see plots cantered around Tony being held
accountable for his actions. In a post on the Marvel website this was said
about the upcoming film, ""Captain America: Civil War" picks up where
"Avengers: Age of Ultron" left off, as Steve Rogers leads the new team of
Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another
international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage,
political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a
governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The
new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world
from a new and nefarious villain." From this, and based off of the previous
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154.120 Transmedia Narrative and Storytelling
Dr Pansy Duncan
16th October 2015

films, we can see how Steve Rogers would be against this form of
government oversight after the events with Hydra in 'Winter Soldier'.
Whereas Tony Stark now being about accountability, and himself having
tried to create a form of oversight by creating Ultron in 'Age of Ultron',
audiences will be able to follow and understand why these two characters
who have worked together previously would come to blows over their
conflicting world views. This highlights how the individual films set up the
motivations for the characters that will influence how they interact with
other characters in future films. It also shows that even though each of
the films have an individual story, there are overarching plot points and
ideas that tie in with one another and lead into future films. This leads to
the new point of how each of the films tie into one another.

Even though each of the Marvel films have their own story to tell there are
elements that will eventually tie into the greater universe as a whole. The
obvious example of this is with the post credit scenes, as they do not have
to tie into the main narrative of the film. The first post credit scene we
saw was at the end of the first Iron Man, where Nick Fury, played by
Samuel L. Jackson, was introduced and mentioned the 'Avengers
Initiative'. Even though the set up of these two elements would not be
paid off until the second Iron Man and the first Avengers film, it would
pave the way for what was to come. The next end credit scene we saw
was at the end of 'The Incredible Hulk' where Tony Stark walks into a bar
and approaches General Ross, who had just played a major role in the
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154.120 Transmedia Narrative and Storytelling
Dr Pansy Duncan
16th October 2015

film. In the scene Tony mentions tow things, one about the super-soldier
serum and one about a team that 'they are' assembling. The 'team' is
another hint towards the upcoming Avengers film, and the super-soldier
serum is a tie in to the first Captain America film where we see the serum
that the military was experimenting on in 'The incredible Hulk',
successfully transform Steve Rogers into Captain America. However these
two teasers were not what made this post credit scene so successful, it
was the fact that this is where the audience got to see for the first time
that the films Marvel Studios were creating, were in fact part of the same
world. Another good example of the set ups seen in the end credit scenes
is from end credit scene of the first Thor film where Nick Fury shows Dr.
Selvig the alien artefact know as the Tesseract. In the following film,
'Captain America: The First Avenger', we see the power the Tesseract
posses, and the danger it presents if in the wrong hands. This set up is
further built upon in the first Avengers where Loki uses it to open up a
portal allowing for an alien army to pass through and attack New York.
There is another element to the Tesseract as well, as it is one of the six
infinity stones. So far out of the twelve Marvel Studio films, four of these
stones have appeared. The Tesseract, the Mind Stone which is seen in
'Avengers: Age of Ultron', the Aether which appears in 'Thor: the Dark
World', and the Orb which appears in 'Guardians of the Galaxy'. This story
thread will undoubtedly come together for the two planned Avengers
films, 'Infinity War, part 1', and 'Infinity War, part 2'. These end credit

Chris Brown
154.120 Transmedia Narrative and Storytelling
Dr Pansy Duncan
16th October 2015

scenes are now an expected part of the Marvel films to offer insight into
events that have taken place or are yet to take place.

Another way Marvel Studios ties their cinematic universe together is by

crossing over characters within the films and between the films and serial
shows. We see this through the use of S.H.I.E.L.D, which stands for the
'Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division'. In
the Marvel Cinematic Universe S.H.I.E.L.D appears in the majority of the
properties. They are a connective thread between each of the films and
between the films and their serialised shows. We were first introduced to
S.H.I.E.L.D through Agent Coulson in the first Iron Man movie. Coulson also
appears in the second Iron Man and the first Thor film before featuring in
the Avengers. In the Avengers his death is ultimately what results in the
Avengers being able to work together as a team. Coulson was also given
one of the Marvel One Shots, a series of short films to further develop
minor characters, around the same time as the Avengers film. However
this was not the end of Coulson's influence on the universe as he was
brought back from the dead to star as one of the leads on the television
show 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D'. The S.H.I.E.L.D show focussed more on the
smaller scale incidents that S.H.I.E.L.D would have to deal with on a day to
day bases, however they did keep the formula of the Avengers of building
a handpicked team to deal with these incidents. The show has had a few
crossovers to tie it into the rest of the cinematic universe, the most
notable of these was during the events of 'Captain America: Winter
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154.120 Transmedia Narrative and Storytelling
Dr Pansy Duncan
16th October 2015

Soldier' where Hydra infiltrated and took over S.H.I.E.L.D.. During this we
got to see the ramifications of those events and how they impacted the
team in the show. This connectivity has created a new way in which world
building takes place across multiple mediums, this is further highlighted
with the start of the Marvel Studio Netflix shows.

Daredevil was the first of the Netflix shows to tie into the Marvel
Cinematic World and will soon be followed by the upcoming 'Jessica Jones'
series. These Netflix shows differ from Marvel's other shows. Whereas
'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D' and 'Agent Carter' maintain the light hearted nature
of the films, the Netflix shows, which have focussed on characters with
darker back stories, have focussed more on these darker traits and have
changed the tone of the show to fit this. This shows a change in world
building by showing that even though something does not fit tone wise
with the rest of the material you have, there can still place for it within a
different medium and delivery system.

In conclusion we can see that Marvel Studios has been setting trends in
regards to building a shared world in a cinematic universe, and it is
through their character development in the solo films, their ability to tie
the different properties together, and being able to include properties that
may have been previously excluded on the basis of a tonal difference into

Chris Brown
154.120 Transmedia Narrative and Storytelling
Dr Pansy Duncan
16th October 2015

their universe that has allowed Marvel Studios to transform the way that
they have built their world.

Word Count: 1,992

Bibliography
Marvel, (2015). Marvel Studios Begins Production On Marvel's 'Captain
America: Civil War'. Retrieved from
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Chris Brown
154.120 Transmedia Narrative and Storytelling
Dr Pansy Duncan
16th October 2015

http://marvel.com/news/movies/24586/marvel_studios_begins_production_
on_marvels_captain_america_civil_war#ixzz3obMgoa1O